Imaging various tissues and organs of the human body provides useful information in various disciplines of medical practice for determining the best type and course of treatment. For example, intravascular imaging technologies have enabled doctors to create and view a variety of images generated by an imaging device inserted within vasculature. Imaging of the coronary vessels of a patient by techniques involving intravascular insertion of a catheter-mounted probe (e.g., an ultrasound transducer array) can provide physicians with valuable information. Such image data indicates the extent of a stenosis in a patient, reveals progression of disease, and helps determine whether procedures such as angioplasty or atherectomy are indicated or whether more invasive procedures are warranted.
The development of new imaging and/or examining technologies has provided an increasing number of options available to doctors for the non-invasive diagnosis and evaluation of disease. Medical technologies for externally imaging and/or examining both external and internal bodily structures offers a diagnostic tool to establish the need for treatment of a diseased structure, to determine the most appropriate course of treatment, and to assess the effectiveness of the treatment. Such external imaging and/or evaluation techniques can complement traditional radiological imaging techniques (e.g., angiography and mammography) by providing images of the tissue and/or fluid flow without introducing instruments (and the associated health risks) into the patient's body. Internal body structures may be imaged and/or examined to determine the structural or flow characteristics that may indicate abnormalities such as, but not limited to, tumors, cysts, abscesses, mineral deposits, obstructions, plaques, and other anatomical defects or pathologies. Often these high quality images are generated in substantially real time. However, analysis of these images often localizes the object of interest but does not characterize the tissue, requiring a biopsy to classify the tissue and establish a definitive diagnosis. Also, analysis of these images are dependent upon highly trained observers and may be subject to observer biases and result in known observer-variability.
The devices, systems, and methods disclosed herein overcome one or more of the deficiencies of the prior art.